Rotating Tyres

[davystokes]

My 2002 RAV4 is soon to go in for its 40,000 mile service. The road tyres are all fairly evenly worn but I was wondering about asking the dealer to rotate the spare tyre into the other 4. But the spare is unused with 8mm tread depth; the other tyres range from 5 mm centre wear to 6.5 mm outer wear. Is there too much difference between the tread on the spare and the others to allow rotation?

thanks, Davy

[Uncle Bob]

My 2002 RAV4 is soon to go in for its 40,000 mile service. The road tyres are all fairly evenly worn but I was wondering about asking the dealer to rotate the spare tyre into the other 4. But the spare is unused with 8mm tread depth; the other tyres range from 5 mm centre wear to 6.5 mm outer wear. Is there too much difference between the tread on the spare and the others to allow rotation?

thanks, Davy

The spare on my car is new and unused and thats the way i hope to keep it (well subject to not getting a punture ), i say don't use your new spare, let your tyres get down to around 2-3 mm and get a new set (funds permitting ) .

[Whitey7]

I agree. Leave the spare alone and run what you have until replacing all 4. If you run the spare you'll end up with a part worn spare, a tyre with some wear on the car and 3 worn ones. Seems false economy really as quite soon after replacing 3, you'll be buying a forth.

[davystokes]

Thanks for the advice guys.

My reason for wanting to put the spare into the rotation pattern are two fold:

- the spare is now 4 years old and according to the Toyota owners manual ageing of the rubber will mean that the spare will need to be inspected at 6 years old whether in use or not.

- more importantly, if my road tyres wear down to below 5mm tread and then damage causes a road tyre to be replaced, I will not be able to either use the unused spare or a new tyre because of the differences in circumference. So I will have to throw away my 5mm tyres and buy a complete new set.

Also if I have a puncture and use the spare, because of the differences in circumference between the spare and the old tyres I will need to limit my speed to 50mph - tiresome on a long journey!

cheers Davy

[Uncle Bob]

I see were you are coming from with a mix of old and new tyres, a new tyre has 8mm of tread and a worn tyre could be legal at just 1.7 mm (1.6mm being the limit ),and although the RAV4 has permanent 4 wheel drive , i would hope Toyota have engineered enough tolerance to run old and new tyre with our breaking the transmission or central differential .

[Steve@Aberdeen]

My 2002 RAV4 is soon to go in for its 40,000 mile service. The road tyres are all fairly evenly worn but I was wondering about asking the dealer to rotate the spare tyre into the other 4. But the spare is unused with 8mm tread depth; the other tyres range from 5 mm centre wear to 6.5 mm outer wear. Is there too much difference between the tread on the spare and the others to allow rotation?

thanks, Davy

As your dealer has said, tyres don't have an indefinite life, even if not used - if the EEC have their way, future tyres will have even less life (side-effects of proposed modifications to make recycling and disposal easier).

Using all five tyres means a bigger expense when you have to change them (as you'll be buying five at the same time) but it's no more in the long term - the effect on your pocket depends how long you plan to keep your car and the mileage you do.

[pmb]

The handbook recommends rotating the tyres every 3000 miles. (No I don't do that either) Caravanners are told to think about replacing tyres at 5 years old and definately replace them at 7 years due to UV affects even if there is plenty of tread left.